Harry felt exhilarated. They had almost kissed. He had almost put his lips on hers, run his hands through her silky hair, and really kissed her. Something he hadn't done in so long, he physically missed it.

He sighed as he opened the door to Ron's room, after receiving no reply to his knock.

"Hey, Mate, everything okay?"

Ron's snores were a little too loud to be believable, and Harry flipped the light on.

"I might have believed it if you had bothered to get into your pyjama's. What happened? You both looked pretty upset leaving that room."

Ron rolled over to look at him, his face impassive.

"I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

Harry sighed. Sometimes getting Ron to talk was like getting water out of a stone.

"Well, you might want to consider it, cause Ginny's with Hermione right now talking about it, and you don't want to the story to be one sided."

Ron's face narrowed as he realised what Harry just said.

"She's talking to my sister! Oh great… Now they'll both spend all night talking about what a huge prat I am."

Harry laughed.

"Ginny might, but I doubt Hermione will."

Ron shot Harry a cynical look.

"You don't know what happened."

Various scenes flashed through Harry's head, but he couldn't decide on one that would explain why Hermione looked so heart broken.

"Just tell me already!"

Ron took a deep breath.

"I kissed her."

Harry waited. And waited. Because nothing else followed. Finally he spoke up.

"And…?"

Ron groaned and shot his best friend a filthy look.

"Did she push you away? Was it bad? I don't understand!"

"Of course you wouldn't mate… You've never kissed someone who didn't want to kiss you. She didn't pull away. It was… breathtakingly brilliant. My heart stopped… But you're missing the point! It was with Hermione! Hermione would never kiss me! Not sober. I took advantage of her."

Ron groaned and rolled over, covering his head with his pillow. So this was it.

Harry cringed at Ron's description of his kiss with Hermione. A little too much information, but at least everything was clear to Harry now.

"Oh mate… I feel sorry for you."

Ron looked over miserably.

"I know. She's gonna hex me or something! Or worse, she'll never talk to me again."

Harry chuckled.

"You may be right… But not for the reasons you think. I'm guessing you pulled away? Stopped the kiss?"

Ron nodded.

"Hmm… She's probably humiliated. The guy she's liked for five years just kissed her, then pulled back, and ran horrified out of the room. I'd hex you if it were me."

Ron sat up quickly.

"What did you just say? She doesn't like me… Not like that. Hermione never would, not when there's guys like Krum out there."

Harry snorted at his best friend's ignorance.

"Look, I don't see it either, but she does. Ginny told me all about it in sixth year. I didn't see it earlier, but it became quite apparent after awhile."

Ron sat there looking stricken. Harry studied him, then leaned over, and questioned him slowly.

"Are you telling me, that you never noticed that you two have been practically in love with each other since like, third year?"

"Earlier than that for me. But I thought no one noticed. I didn't even notice til fourth year."

Ron's ears brightened.

"Everyone knew that I liked her?"

Harry nodded.

"And that she liked you."

Ron buried his head in his pillow, groaning loudly.

"Yep, you are a prat. Now are you going to go talk to her? Put things at ease? Be honest about how you feel?"

Ron just lay there, not moving.

"Okay mate. Maybe it is best if you let Ginny calm her down tonight. Talk tomorrow. I'm going to sleep now though, so keep the groaning down, alright?"

Harry left Ron to his thoughts, and dressed for bed. He turned off the light, and climbed into his own bed, on Ron's floor, left with his own thoughts. To start with, maybe it was time he and Ron stopped sharing a room at the Burrow. There were plenty vacant ones. And not so vacant ones, he thought, remembering his almost kiss with Ginny.

He slipped off into dream filled sleep, and for the first time in a while, his dreams were filled with him kissing a red headed girl, not stopping a monster from killing her.